I was first struck by how funny this novel was. I guffawed several times while reading it. It takes a remarkable writer to do this with humor, especially across cultures.I thought this work illustrated well the role of religion in society. For the Igbo there was no separation of religion from society--they were one and the same. It's perhaps fitting that while the administration doesn't quite get this (Clarke doesn't even understand that a Chief Priest is not the same as a medicine man) , the missionaries do, ultimately manipulating the villages to connect Christianity to their harvest.Achebe does a superb job humanizing Ezeulu in the story, so that the reader forgets that he is truly half-spirit. This makes Ulu's command to stay the course of revenge near the conclusion all the more shocking. There is no option for Ezeulu to do anything else. At the other end of the spectrum, the reader witnesses the death of the Umuaro society in their necessary drive to survive by finding a way to harvest. Similarly, it would have meant the death of Ezeulu (at least culturally) had he accepted the Chief position since his society isn't structured to be ruled (with the exception of the quasi-king that first had to pay everyone debts). Instead Ezeulu chooses the path of self-destruction.From the British colonial perspective, Achebe shows the tension of indirect rule and their priorities. Clarke and Captain Winterbottom discuss all the money spent on native courts (that they natives won't use) and the void of funding for infrastructure like roads. This is important because one could argue that it is these roads that enable the homogenization of the Igbo people and subjugate a shared identity onto them.FOLLOWING ARE MY NOTES FOR THE GRAD SCHOOL COURSE IN WHICH WE READ THIS NOVEL. More notes are available on my blog For Unofficial Use Only.Arrow of God Notes:-Humor that the English think they understand the people, but they still don't despite prolonged presence...parallels to our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan- Advantages of living near the infrastructure- In direct rule seeks lighter hand by default...goal is more to maintain a status quo of peace- Comments on missionary role by Capt W?- Influence of infrastructure on Igbo...shifting from a language group to an identity- with regards to religion, subtleties in the region...a priest chief is not necessarily a medicine man. Religion is the same as the society...there's no delineation as in Western culture.Ezeulu- Chief Priest of UluMatefi- Ezeulu's senior wifeUgoye- Ezeulu's younger wifeOkuata- Ezeulu's wife that is deadEdogo- Eldest son of Ezeulu, and OkuataObika- son of Ezeulu (drunk and troublesome and handsome) and UgoyeNwafo- youngest son of Ezeulu (his favorite) and UgoyeObiageli- daughter of Ezeulu (sister of Nwafo) and UgoyeOjiugo- daughter of Ezeulu and MatefiAkueke- daughter of Ezeulu and OkuataOduche- Ezeulu's sonCHAPTER 1Ezeulu (Chief Priest of Ulu) introduction as he looks to the sky for the new moon (which he must announce). Ezeulu's announcements control the harvest seasons, most importantly the New Yam Feast. Edogo carves ancestral masks. Ezeulu is bitter about division among the six villages because he spoke the truth to the white man and testified against his people about land dispute with Okperi. Obika beats up and humiliates Akueke husband who had been beating her. Oduche is training with the whites per Ezeulu's instructions.CHAPTER 26 Villages come together and call for war against the Okperi (led by Nwaka). Akukalia is killed when Umuaro messengers lose their temper. War ensues with retaliatory killings. Then the whiteman intervenes and judges the land to belong to Okperi. He also breaks all their guns.CHAPTER 3Captain Winterbottom is introduced and Tony Clark as his assistant. He recounts their version of the Umuaro-Okperi wars which are different from reality. Captain Winterbottom believe in the value of native institutions but is forced to enforce indirect rule. Ibos never developed a system of central authority.CHAPTER 4Enmity of Nwaka and Ezeulu is revealed. Oduche was given to learn the ways of the whiteman's church. Oduche put a python in a box, which Ezeulu finds and frees; scandal ensues. Ezidemelli (Nwaka's friend and python priest) asks what he will do to purify his home.CHAPTER 5Winterbottom doesn't believe indirect rule is effective but most obey his superiors. "Great tragedy of British colonial administration was that the man on the spot (who knew his African) and knew what he was talking about found himself being constantly overruled by starry-eyed fellows at headquarters. Ibos detest kings, but Ikedi makes himself one as a puppet of the administration--he's very corrupt.CHAPTER 6Akueke's inlaws come for her and promise not to let husband beat her--Ezeulu agrees to this.CHAPTER 7Purification day for the six villages. Ugoye has the most ivory of Ezeulu's wives. Nwaka's wives has most ivory. Ezeulu does the purification dance. Women gossip.CHAPTER 8Mr. Wright needs unpaid labor to finish his road and gets it from the Umuaro. Obika is late (because he was drunk) to the road work party and gets whipped. In the ensuing controversy Moses acts as an intermediary. Ezeulu tries to get to the bottom of what happens and his sons show no remorse. The death that will kill a man begins as an appetite.CHAPTER 9Akuebe visits Ezeulu to talk about Obika and the lack of respect of the youth in general.Pride of Umuaro that they never see one party as right and the other as wrong.CHAPTER 10Background on Capt W (including his soldiering in Cameroon) and how his wife ran off with someone else. Capt W expresses disgruntlement at the bureaucracy and their flawed administrative appointments. Capt W and Clarke dine. Clarke and Wright are friends and no one ever investigates whipping. Capt W intends to make Ezeulu paramount chief. Idea of institutions vs. Infrastructures is addressed with administration spending all the money on native courts but not enough on roads. Most Africans aren't using the courts either (or at least willingly).CHAPTER 11Ezeulu visits Akuebe where a man is sick. Ezeulu asks him what the man did to deserve the sickness. Obika and Okuata wed. The medicine man keeps the chicken from the ceremony (which he isn't supposed to do). Ezeulu hopes Obika is a changed man.CHAPTER 12Edogo talks to Akuebe and feigns disinterest in being chosen to succeed his father. Oduche gets in fight with Obija about the python. Ezeulu says that Oduche is a sacrifice from the people to Akuebe. Capt W sends messengers to tell Ezeulu to come see him. Ezeulu says no, I will send my son Edogo. No one however great can win judgment against a clan.CHAPTER 13Ezeulu calls all the village leaders to talk about being summoned. Nwaka jabs at him over his `friendship' with the whiteman. Ezeulu is unaffected (at least outwardly) by it. Capt W sends for Ezeulu to be arrested and falls ill. Guards come to arrest Ezeulu but they miss him because he already left to come in. The eat, take a bribe and leave. Ezeulu arrives at headquarters and everyone things he cast a spell to make Capt W sick. He likes this.CHAPTER 14Obika returns home and Ezeulu has a vision in prison. He starts to plot his revenge. Ezeulu's family comes to visit him. He's offered the position of Chief and refuses it. The advantages of getting in with the whiteman early are discussed. Clarkes calls him a `witch doctor" highlighting the levels of misunderstanding culturally.CHAPTER 15Ezeulu is in prison 32 days and his reputation soars as he still refuses the offer. He's then released. Capt W and Clarke get a message from the administration stating that they reserved the adverse report on indirect rule but any change in policy will have to come from the governor. They are directed to maintain the status quo but not appoint any new chiefs.CHAPTER 16Ezeulu returns home, enjoying the suffering and plotting his revenge. He reconsiders his revenge due to all the nice people coming to visit him. Ezeulu is told by Ulu that he can't reconsider, he's an arrow of god against Idemelli and the python god. Ezeulu remarks that he is half man and half spirit. He wonders if his boy is also an arrow.CHAPTER 17Life returns to normal in the village. A new ancestral mask is introduced. Obika slaughters the ram in the ceremony and Edogo carvest he mask.CHAPTER 18Feast of New Yam approaches and Ezeulu plots his revenge. He's questioned by lots of people for delaying the announcement. He rebukes them. The elders come and ask him to ask Ulu how they can appease him so that they can have their yam harvest. Ulu says no. Ezeulu is despised by his people Goodcountry says if they give church a yam they can harvest their fields and he will protect them from Ulu. The best way to deal with whiteman is to know him (so they send their kids to his school).CHAPTER 19People are starving. Ezeulu is shunned and lonely. Obika has a fever but goes to dance in a burial ceremony and dies. Ezeulu is ruined. People go to Goodcountry so they can harvest.
This, the third of Achebe's African Trilogy, seemed to require more attention than its predecessors. The plot is straightforward, some of the scenes take place from the point of view of Nigeria's colonial administration and those were easy enough to get into, but the tribal scenes needed patience. Patience is rewarded with some wonderful insights into tribal life and the sayings of the Igbo people but, unfortunately, I'd lost a lot of the flavour of the work before I realised that for gulping rather than chewing and, indeed, I lost some of the plot as well.To restart at the beginning...Ezeulu is the priest - and arrow - of Ulu, the god of the village of Umuaro. The village itself, relatively isolated from colonial administration, largely goes about its own business unhindered, but intrusions do take place. One such earned Ezeulu the trust of Winterbottom, a trust that is to prove damaging later. Another - peripherally - is the intrusion of Christianity in the form of a church established near Umuaro by one John Goodcountry, a church to which Ezeulu sent one of his own sons in order to become a Christian and serve as his eyes and ears, though it is clear this engenders within the son split loyalties between his father and Christianity, a faith he begins to adopt as his own with increasing dedication.A third encounter affecting Ezeulu directly comes with the building of a road. The administration decides to bring in unpaid labour in order to hasten the project onwards, and another of Ezeulu's sons is volunteered as one of the labourers. A wayward lad, given to sloth and over-indulgence in the local beverage, he turns up late for work with a hangover and taunts the overseer with his attitude. The overseer, an Englishman, beats him severely for doing so. Ezeulu, then, is not as well disposed to the colonial administration as he might be when Winterbottom decides to set Ezeulu up as a local chief in the area following the policy of indirect rule whereby trusted locals take positions of authority on the administration's behalf. He summons Ezeulu to attend him, such summons always being delivered by locals who, running the administration's errands, cannot resist using their position to levy taxes and to gain benefits by making demands with the supposed authority of the administration itself. Their arrogance in delivering their message further compounds Ezeulu's negativity and, moreover, they do not know the basis upon which the summons has been made, further frustrating Ezeulu who finds the summons peremptory. Ezeulu resists, refuses on the basis that a man in his position is not to be summonsed in this fashion, but fellow villagers - not wishing to offend the white administration - prevail upon him to attend.He arrives to find Winterbottom indisposed by illness and a deputy, less familiar with the situation in Nigeria and not knowing Ezeulu at all, has the task of making the offer. Ezeulu refuses, and the deputy imprisons him out of irritation, and in the hope he may be able to persuade him in that way.Here, Ezuelu's absence from the village becomes important. With each new moon, he eats one of a dozen yams from the previous year. When these are used up, he announces the new harvest of yams but, in his absence, yams have gone uneaten. When he returns, then, for the ritual to play itself out, the harvest is fatally delayed. There is some question here in my mind whether Ezuelu is pedantic about this merely given his dedication to the ritual, or whether irritation with his fellow villagers at sending him on his demeaning mission plays a part. The ambiguity may have arisen from my o'er-hasty reading, but it does seem Achebe focuses upon the latter when Ezuelu first makes his decision, the former as events work their way through as a consequence. Either way, Ezuelu is adamant.Goodcountry, the priest, sees an opportunity. He puts it about that if the villagers bring offerings of yams to his own harvest festival, the Christian God will protect the villagers from the wrath of Ulu and so they can bring in their harvest. Many of the villagers prove reluctant to abandon their traditions in this way, though their plight is severe, and Goodcountry offers them a solution. However, Ezuelu is to suffer yet again when one of his favoured sons, in temporary ill-health, is prevailed upon to undertake a strenuous activity at a funeral ritual. It is too much for him, and he dies.Ezuelu is now a broken man and, the arrow of Ulu, the villagers see a broken god. We know that their abandonment of the old ways for Christianity is now inevitable.Whether or not Achebe intends his readers to see the book in this light I do not know, but for me this is a story of the unintended consequences of power, and the inevitability of its leading those over whom it holds sway into the ways of those who wield it. Winterbottom may be content for the villagers to continue with their traditions so long as they cooperate with the administration, but that very cooperation has consequences. The fact it is able to simply commandeer labour brings tensions, and it is only able to do so because of the awe in which the administration is held, however that may or may not be acknowledged. That is a tension that must be resolved. Moreover, no local aware of the ways of the tribe would have kept the priest away from the identification of the new moon and disrupted the annual ritual. In other words, the two cultures can exist side by side only in temporary stasis. Even with the best of intentions - not that I am claiming the best of intentions for British colonial rule in Nigeria overall - the dominating culture must prevail and usurp its predecessor. The tensions are too great between them, and the more powerful culture will inevitably win out as the old, perforce, fails to live in harmony with it, even if the disharmony is unrecognised by the usurping culture and its actions in bringing it to the fore are unintentional.This is a work to take slowly and carefully. I am sorry to say I didn't give it the attention it deserved. The easier passages dealing with the colonial administration led me to be too hasty in reading the sections about the tribe which dominate the book. Nonetheless, I got a great deal of satisfaction from it. The careful reader will derive even more.
What do You think about Arrow Of God (1989)?
"Arrow of God" is the winner of the New Statesman-Jock Campbell Award and you feel as you are reading this sublime tale of the Ibo Tribe in Africa that you are witnessing the telling of a timeless tale. The destruction of a culture and livelihood of the Ibo people is evident with the coming of westernization to Africa. This is a tale of the high priest, Ezeulu, who with all his wisdom still succumbs to the ravages of time as European rule dominates over his traditional ways. In the end, he blames his god for the destruction wrought by the invasion of the white man, but no one in his tribe can read the writing on the wall. This is a sublime story.
—Jeanne Halloran
Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God depicts the disintegration of an African society. This disintegration provides a crack in the wall that becomes a house for the lizard of foreign religion and culture. There is a conflict between the old and new, between past and present, and between native and foreign; the novel revolves around this conflict.However, the novel does not just present the tragic fall of a man, who is an arrow of god (or God), it is also the tragic fall of an (or the) African god. It is this fall that leads to the rise of the foreign God.In a way, the didacticism of the novel is not just intended for man, but also for the gods (and God).
—Samuel Oluwatobi Olatunji
It's about 15 years late, but we just got round to watching the Sopranos after all these years. Bizarrely, this was good companion viewing for reading Arrow of God. In both we have aging Patriarchs coming to terms with their own mortality, while trying to bring up their families traditionally in the face of a rapidly changing world. Tony is head of one of the five families, while Ezuela is the Chief Priest of the Six Villages. People all around them are disregarding their heritage, welcoming the new (The Russians, drug dealing vs the White Man and Christianity) and disrespecting the old. After months of minor turmoil, Ezuela tries to pull off one grand final coup, and ends up losing almost everything. Does the same happen to Tony? (I don't know yet, sssh, though I know what happens, I don't know how!). While Ezuela is a little less of an anti hero than Tony, you get the impression he's done some things that would be seen as pretty nasty in the name of Ulu over his lifetime. I enjoyed Arrow Of God perhaps more than I would have done given this helpful timing.
—Becky
